Suture needle



Aug. 9, 1966 L. D. KURTZ 3,265,070

SUTURE NEEDLE Original Filed Nov. 17, 1960 Prior Art INVENTOR LEONARD D. KURTZ BY ozwe w 03 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,265,070 SUTURE NEEDLE Leonard D. Kurtz, 9620 222nd St., Queens Village,

. Woodmere, N.Y.

Original application Nov. 17, 1960, Ser. No. 69,856, now Patent No. 3,197,997, dated Aug. 3, 1965. Divided and this application Feb. 26, 1965, Ser. No. 443,739

2 Claims. (Cl. 128-339) This application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 69,856, filed November 17, 1960, now Patent No. 3,197,997.

This invention relates to suture needles and more particularly to a means for substantially strengthening suture needles against bending forces.

Heretofore it has been common practice to flatten by compressing portions of a curved surgical needle having a round cross-section to provide a gripping area for clamping needle holders. This procedure insures that the needle will not twist while being retained by the needle holder, but it can also be appreciated that the reduction of depth of the needle produced by this compression substantially reduces the force required to bend the needle in the plane of the curvature thereof. The resistance to bending force of surgical suture needles is of utmost importance to the surgeon who frequently must exercise considerable pressure to pass a needle through certain tissues.

An increase in the needle diameter would, of course, result in a substantial increase in the force required to bend the needle but such a needle modification would increase the size of the hole made by the needle and would increase trauma to the patient. tive sought is to increase the resistance to bending without enlarging the diameter of the needle.

According to the present invention there is provided a surgical needle which has substantially increased resistance to bending wherein the needle diameter is not increased over that which has been previously used. According to the present invention the needle is flattened by compression in the usual manner to provide a gripping area for clamping needle holders and subsequently the needle is rotated 90 in the press and again the needle is compressed and flattened. This second flattening step serves to increase the depth of the needle and hence in creases the resistance to bending of the needle in the critical area adjacent the point where the needle is grasped by the needle holder. It has been found that by forming a needle in this manner a substantial improvement in the resistance to bending results, for example, tests with certain types of needles resulted in an increase in the resistance to bending of 20%. Such an increase is quite substantial and meets present day needs and, of course, the needle does not require greater force to pass it through tissues since the point is not altered and the size of the hole produced by the needle remains substantially the same.

An object of the present invention is to increase the resistance to bending of surgical suture needles without increasing the diameter of the needle.

Another object of the present invention is to increase the depth of a needle in the area in which the. needle is flattened for gripping by needle holders.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent Thus, the objecupon consideration of the following detailed specification in light of the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a surgical suture needle illustrating the invention,

FIG. 2 is a cross-section of a portion of a needle according to prior art design, and

FIG. 3 is a cross-section of the same portion of a needle according to the present invention.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings wherein like numerals indicate like parts throughout the several views there is shown at 1 in FIG. 1 a surgical suture needle having a point 2 at one end thereof which may be one of many knowndesigns. A suture 3 is attached to the other end of the needle as by swaging or any other well known means for attaching sutures to needles.

Adjacent the midportion of suture needles on the inner and outer portions of the curved surfaces thereof the needle is slightly flattened. This flattening is shown in FIG. 2 at 4 and 5. This flattening is achieved by compressing the needle within a press. The flattened surfaces form gripping areas for needle holders and are provided in order to prevent twisting of the needle in the holder. However, with reference to FIG. 2 it can be seen that this flattening or compression'of the needle reduces the depth of the needle as indicated at 6 so that the resistance to bending of the needle is reduced.

According to the present invention the needle is flattened both on the inner and outer curved surfaces as is customarily done and in addition is flattened by compression on the sides at to the usualflattened areas. This latter step serves to increase the resistance to bending. This is shown in FIG. 3 wherein there is provided flattened areas 7 and 8 on the inner and outer curved surfaces of the needle for the purpose of providing gripping areas for the needle holders. There is also shown flattened portions 9 and 10 which result from pressing the sides of the needle together. It can be appreciated that this latter step will increase the depth 11 of the needle over that of the depth 6 of a prior art needle. This increase in depth results in a substantial increase in the resistance to bending of the needle in the plane of the curved longitudinal axis of the needle which is the direction in which the needle tends to bend when pressure is applied by the surgeon.

The following tables disclose tests made with two different needles and illustrate the substantial increase over a standard needle in the force required to bend the needle according to the present invention.

A standard prior art needle having an original wire diameter of .0245" yielded a maximum deformation force of 13.4 lbs. This needle was modified to increase the depth according to the present invention giving the following results:

Width of Depth of Maximum Shaft, Shaft, Deforrna- Width/ Inches Inches tion Force, Depth lbs.

The width given in the above table refers to the width of the flattened portion of the shaft. It can be seen that the deformation force increased significantly where the width to depth ratio is less than 1 and reached a maximum at a width to depth ratio of 0.65.

Tests were also conducted on a needle having a wire diameter of .0392 which yielded at a deformation force of 17.5 lbs. This needle when modified according to the present invention produced the following results.

Width of Depth of Maximum Shaft, Shaft, Deiorma- Width/ lnches Inches tion1 lForce, Depth It can be readily seen that a significant increase in resistance to bending was realized at a width to depth ratio less than 1 and that a maximum increase was realized at a ratio of 0.91.

Thus, according to the present invention a substantial increase in the resistance to bending is effected by compressing the needle in such a manner as to increase the depth in a direction in the plane of the curved longitudinal axis of the needle. By decreasing the width to 4 depth ratio to a value less than one the increase in resistance reached a maximum.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. What is claimed as new and is desired to be secured 'by Letters Patent is:

1. A curved surgical needle having a point at one end thereof, means to secure a suture to the needle at the other end thereof and a curved section of circular cross section between said ends, a gripping portion for gripping the needle with needle clamping holders intermediate the ends of said curved section, said gripping portion comprising a first pair of flattened surfaces disposed on inner and outer curved surfaces of the needle and a second pair of flattened surfaces disposed substantially normally With respect to said first pair of surfaces, the space between said first pair of surfaces and between said second pair of surfaces respectively defining the depth and width of the gripping portion, the ratio of the width to depth of the gripping portion being less than unity.

2. A needle according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of the width to depth of the gripping area being between 0.65 to 1.00.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,110,468 9/1914 Turner 128-339 2,841,150 7/1958 Riall 128339 2,920,371 1/1960 Shoemaker 29-553 3,038,475 6/1962 Orcutt 128--339 RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

D. L. TRULUCK, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A CURVED SURGICAL NEEDLE HAVING A POINT AT ONE END THEREOF, MEANS TO SECURE A SUTURE TO THE NEEDLE AT THE OTHER END THEREOF AND A CURVED SECTION OF CIRCULAR CROSS SECTION BETWEEEN SAID ENDS, A GRIPPONG PORION FOR GRIPPING THE NEEDLE WITH NEEDLE CLAMPING HOLDERS INTERMEDIATE THE ENDS OF SAID CURVED SECTION, SAID GRIPPING PORTION COMPRISING A FIRST PAIR OF FLATTENED SURFACE DISPOSED ON INNER AND OUTER CURVED SURFACES OF THE NEEDLE AND A SECOND PAIR OF FLATTENED SURFACES DISPOSED SUBSTANTIALLY NORMALLY WITH RESPECT TO SAID FIRST PAIR OF SURFACE, THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID FIRST PAIR OF SURFACES AND BETWEEN SAID SECOND PAIR OF SURFACES RESPECTIVELY DEFINING THE DEPTH AND WIDTH OF THE GRIPPING PORTION, THE RATIO OF THE WIDTH TO DEPTH OF THE GRIPPING PORTION BEING LESS THAN UNITY. 